ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

›› 2008, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (11): 1197-1202.

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On the Religiosity of Christian Adolescents: Based on the Case of Christian Group in the Rural Area of Gansu Province

YANG Bao-Yan;WAN Ming-Gang;WANG Wei;LIU Xian-Cui   

  1. Research Center for the Educational Development of Minorities, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
  • Received:2008-08-17 Revised:1900-01-01 Published:2008-11-30 Online:2008-11-30
  • Contact: WAN Ming-Gang

Abstract: Religiosity has long been recognized as a very important standard for religious faith. Social psychologists’ researches are usually carried out from the following perspectives: religious orientation, religious attitude and individual’s involvement in religious activities. The present paper aims at analyzing the religiosity of Christian adolescents and its characteristics, expounding the relationships among religious involvement, religious orientation and religious attitude in the hope of understanding the status quo of the Christian faith of Christian adolescents and the formation of their religious faith.
The present study employed 148 Christian adolescents to examine relationships of religious orientation, religious involvement and religious attitude through questionnaires among Christian adolescents based on fieldwork. The results showed that: (1) the stability of religious faith of Christian adolescents is being weakened without the manifestation of gender difference. adolescents from Christian families are much more stable in their religious faith than those who were converted into Christians in a certain time; (2) religious orientation is composed of intrinsic religious orientation, extrinsic personal orientation and extrinsic social orientation. Extrinsic orientation took priority over other orientations, without gender difference, and the score of people who are consistent with their religious orientation on the intrinsic religious orientation and extrinsic personal orientation is significantly higher than that of those who deviate from religion; (3) the score of Christian adolescents with high religious involvement on the dimensionalities of intrinsic religious orientation and extrinsic personal orientation is significantly higher than that of those with low religious involvement; (4) the relationship between each intrinsic dimensionality of religious orientation shows significant positive correlation, and each dimensionality of religious attitude and religious involvement, intrinsic religious orientation and extrinsic personal orientation are positively related too.
The present paper ends with the conclusion that: Christian adolescents polarize on their religious faith, displaying no gender difference. The religious orientation of Christian adolescents consists of intrinsic religious orientation, extrinsic personal orientation and extrinsic social orientation. Extrinsic orientation takes priority over other orientations

Key words: Christian adolescents, religiosity, religious orientation, religious attitude

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